Fired for his beliefs
Liberty of conscience? What’s that? A University of Illinois teacher has been fired because of his religious beliefs.
Year: 2010
overruns at JWST
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) is questioning the new cost overruns for building the James Webb Space Telescope.
Caving July 10, 2010
I was out in West Virginia this weekend for the monthly gathering of the Germany Valley Karst Survey. This project has discovered and mapped more than 37 miles of virgin cave passage in West Virginia in the past eight years. For the last two years I, along with about a dozen other project members, have been focused on a dig in a small cave that has the potential to break out into a lot of virgin passage. Below are two pictures taken by fellow caver Daniel Martinez, the first showing me at the cave entrance and the second showing my feet as crawl in.
Rosetta flyby results
Check out the Rosetta flyby images.
A dark and stormy night
The 2010 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has been awarded, given to the writer who comes up with the worst opening sentence for an imaginary novel. This year’s winner, Molly Ringle, achieved the honor with this gem:
For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity’s affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss — a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity’s mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world’s thirstiest gerbil.
Go here to see the runners-up, all of which are worth it.
Climategate whitewash
It appears that the chief investigator of the recently released climategate investigation of Phil Jones and the University of East Anglia never attended any of the investigation’s interviews of Phil Jones. What a strange way to do an investigation!
Webcast of Rosetta flyby of 21 Lutetia
Benny and Blanc on Carson
An evening pause: Jack Benny and Mel Blanc on the Johnny Carson show, 1974. After you have watched and laughed, ask yourself this question: why is it funny? The answer: because sometimes the best “funny” is in how it’s done, not in what is said.
Rosetta approaches asteroid
Rosetta has sent back its first picture of the asteroid 21 Lutetia. The flyby is scheduled for July 10.
More questions about climategate inquiry
More questions are being raised about the various climategate investigations, this time in the UK Parliament. Key quote:
Climategate may finally be living up to its name. If you recall, it wasn’t the burglary or use of funding that led to the impeachment of Nixon, but the cover-up. Now, ominously, three inquiries into affair have raised more questions than there were before.
More info on Senate compromise
More hints that the Senate is crafting a compromise bill for NASA’s budget that will continue Orion as a full scale manned spacecraft.
Problems on ISS
Equipment problems on the U.S. portion of ISS, and it takes the Russians to tell us.
Water found around carbon star; Bok globule
Water vapor detected in deep space, first near the carbon star V Cygni and second in two dark starless cores. The second detection is a first time water has been seen in these black clouds. Fun quote from the abstract of the first paper notes how the detection “raises the intriguing possibility that the observed water is produced by the vapourisation of orbiting comets or dwarf planets.”
Senate deal on NASA budget
Bad link fixed. Sorry.
The Senate committee that authorizes NASA’s program is nearing a deal that would “reverse large swaths” of President Obama’s budget proposal. The proposal would add one more shuttle flight, restore the full scale Orion capsule, and add funds to immediately build a heavy lift rocket to replace the shuttle. More to come, I’m sure.
Largest hoard of Roman coins found in England
The largest hoard of Roman coins, more than 52,000 total, has been found in Britain.
Vitter slams Obama plan
Apropos my previous post, which noted the hostility of Congress to Obama’s budget proposal for NASA, Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) slammed Obama in his opening remarks at the ceremony marking the delivery of the last external shuttle tank. Key quote: “You all deserve better, and the nation deserves better,”
Both for and against the Obama plan
In my recent co-hosting stint on the John Bachelor Show, I asked David Livingston of the Space Show if he thought the aerospace community was polarized over the Obama administration’s effort to cancel Constellation and replace it with new private companies. “Pretty much so,” he stated without much hesitation.
This makes my position on Obama’s proposal somewhat unusual, as I am actually sitting right in the middle. I am both for and against the Obama administration’s NASA proposal, which might explain why my comments both on behindtheblack as well as on the radio have often caused the blood to boil in people on both sides of the debate. This fact also suggests that there is a need for me to clarify where I stand.
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Orbital’s COTS capsule taking shape
The Cygnus capsule is taking shape. Orbital Sciences signed a COTS contract with NASA in 2008 (as did SpaceX with its Falcon 9 rocket) to provide cargo ferrying services to ISS, and they are making real progress toward their first demonstration flight in the spring of 2011. That they have subcontracted most of the work to foreign companies, however, limits how much their work can help the American aerospace industry.
Solar powered plane flies for over 24 hours
Icarus truly rising. A solar-powered plane has successfully flown for over 24 hours.
More particles discovered in Hayabusa capsule
More tiny particles have been detected in the inner return capsule of Hayabusa.